Apple’s first iPod, a mint-condition model that was purchased in 2001 and never opened, sold for $29,000 on the collectibles investing platform Rally last week.
The iPod was originally bought for $399 at the Willowbrook Mall in Plano, Texas. The original owner placed it on a shelf and never opened it.
Rally fractionalized the iPod into 5,000 shares and sold them to investors for $25,000 each. A single investor bought all 5,000 shares for $29,000, a 16% return.
Rally co-founder Rob Petrozzo says that Apple products are among the most popular investments on the platform. “Everybody is a collector of something, especially technology,” he says. “Memories of nostalgia, they still hold onto things.”
Petrozzo says that even with flagging sales, Apple’s innovation and hardware dominance has vaulted it into the elite club of $1 trillion companies. This, combined with the public’s love of nostalgia, makes Apple products a desirable investment.
“People know that the population [of sealed iProducts] is rare,” Petrozzo says. “They look at Steve Jobs like they look at Michael Jordan or Mickey Mantle: Larger than life.”
The sources for this piece include an article in Axios.
